Friday Favorites – Episode 4

This week has been a good week for food bloggers everywhere.  I found myself starring almost all of the posts in my RSS reader! As a result, it was especially difficult to pick my favorites this week.  As I started re-reading the articles that I had starred from this week, I thought that maybe I would go with some sort of theme to help me pick just a few to post.  At first I thought maybe I would go with an Easter theme… or maybe just a spring theme… or perhaps recipes featuring fresh veggies.  However, for each theme I chose, there was a blog post that I wanted to include that didn’t fit my theme.  So instead, my theme is – blog posts that I really liked this week.  Novel idea, isn’t it?

• Every time I look at Super Salads (and teaching your husband to like them!) from Dianasaur Dishes, I want to rush off to the local farmers market and pick up some fresh veggies for a salad.  I always enjoy reading Diana’s blog posts, but I especially like this one because she provides great suggestions for making wonderful, fresh salads.  Her tips are broken down into the following categories – color, texture, plating, and quality.
• These Fresh Fried Corn Chips with Tomatillo Salsa from Hey Mom, What’s for Dinner Tonight? jumped out at me right away because the salsa contains a few of my all time favorite ingredients – cilantro, lime, and jalapeno.  It also reminded me of the fact that all of the Food Network chefs seem to think it is necessary to inform their viewers that tomatillos are from the gooseberry family and are not green tomatoes (seriously, I think I have probably heard that 30 times – although I do watch the Food Network a lot). Just thought I would help to spread the word, in case you hadn’t heard!
• I will be making these Strawberry-rific Cupcakes from Calm In The Kitchen for Easter this Sunday.  My husband loves strawberry cake (in fact, our wedding cake was made of strawberry cake and vanilla buttercream!) and has been asking me to make a strawberry cake for a while.  So, when I saw these cupcakes, I knew I would have to give them a try.
• I recently discovered that I really like Italian Wedding Soup.  I’m not a real big fan of soup in general, especially soups with a lot of liquid or broth, so it is no big surprise that it took me so long to give it a try.  Once I did, though, I decided that it is something I need to learn to make.  So, I just had to pass along this recipe for Italian Wedding Soup from Simply Scrumptious. I will be giving this one a try.
• Last, but certainly not least, is this recipe for Savory Pumpkin – Caramelized Onion Muffins from Dog Hill Kitchen.  Pumpkin is another ingredient that I absolutely love. While many people prefer to eat pumpkin only in the fall, I could eat it every day.  So, I was quite encouraged to see that there is someone else out there who bakes with pumpkin during the other three seasons of the year…  Hooray!